Hydrant



Oct. 5 1926. 1,601,993

B. M. BLAKE HYDRANT Filed June 22. 1925 Patented Oct. 5, 1926.

UNITED STATES PATENT oFFicE..

BERT M. BLAKE, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR TO EDWARD L. RICK, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, DOING BUSINESS UNDER THE FIRM NAME AND STYLE OF THE RICK COMPANY.

HYDRANT.

This invention relates to hydrants or water plugs of the type employed, for example, in supplying water from a water main to the lire hose. v

With the hydrants orkplugs of the type at present employed for supplying water from the water main to the fire hose, it is customary upon an alarm of fire for the lire engine to pull up to the hydrant anddrop one end of the hose which the iireman connects with the hydrant and the fireman then opens the valve in the hydrant while the engine is laying the hose to the lire. The water is thus played upon the re very quickly, but if the tire is relatively large it is necessary to increase the water pressure over that in the main and, accordingly, the engine is returned to the hydrant and the valve in the hydrant is closed and then the hose is disconnected from the hydrant and connected with the discharge Yof the pump on the engine. Also a short hose is connected between the intake of the pump and the hydrant. The water is then turned on at the hydrant and the pump operated so as to pump the water under relatively high pressure through the fire hose.

It will be obvious from the foregoing statement that, at a critical time in the fighting of the nre, the flow of water onto the tire is discontinued while the connections with the engine are being made, and during this interval of time the fire may gain adangerous headway so as to make it somewhat difficult to bring under control when the water is again turned on.

In an effort to avoid the turning oi of the water while changing Jfrom the city pressure to the higher pressure of the fire .engine7 four-way valves have been designed to be used on the plug end of the hose and said valves are dropped with the hose at the plug. In these valves one of the ports is connected with the plug, another to the re hose, and the other two to intake and outlet ports, respectively, of the pump. When the hose is first connected with the plug the water is turned on and runs from the plug to the hose line. After sufficient time has elapsed to connect up the plug with the tire engine, the four-way valve is operated to direct the water from the lire plug to the engine and to direct the water received from the engine to the fire hose. These four-way valves easily become leaky, are liable to become damaged in handling with the hose and are then very hard to operate. They are also very heavy when made large enough to pass the required amount of water without undue frictional losses.

An object of this invention is to avoid the foregoing diiiiculties.

Another object is to provide for automatic action of the valve that changes the direction of the flow of water from the main to the fire hose so that when the engine is attached and the pump started into operation the water will immediately flow from the main through the engine to the lire hose instead ot directly from the main to the tire hose.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention Fig. l is a perspective view showing a hydrant or plug embodying the invention and connected by intake and outlet hose lines to a fire engine which is ragmentarily shown. A fragment of the lire hose is also shown leading from the hydrant.

Fig. Q is an elevation mainly in vertical midsection of the hydrant shown in Fig. l.

Fig. 3 is a plan View, mainly in section, from the line indicated by 3 3, Fig. 2.

There is provided a hollow standard or member forming lower and upper chambers 4 and 5 which may be thrown into communication vthrough a port 6 connecting them. The term free-operating applied to the check `valve 7 denotes that the che-ck valve is free at all times to operate into either open or closed position and that only differences in pressure in the chambers 4, 5 are relied upon to hold the check valve in the closed and open positions so that the instant the pressure in one chamber becomes greater than that in the other, the check valve will automatically operate without any attention being given to it. The port 6 is controlled by a free-operating check valveL 7 which closes toward the chamber L and opens toward the chamber 5. The chamber et is provided with an outlet port 8 controlled by a suitable valve 9 which may be of any well known construction, the stem l() of said valve passing through the wall ot the chamber t so that it may be manipulated lib for opening and closing the valve 9. In Fig. 2 the port 8 is closed by a cap 11 which will be removed when it isdesired to connectthe The chamber 5 has a plurality of ports 14, 15. It is necessary to have at least two and two are shown. but it is to be understood that if it be desired to connect a plurality of hose lines it is necessary to have one more port in the chamber 5 than there are hose lines to be run from the plug to the ire. One of the ports 111, 15 is an outlet and the other an inlet and, for purposes ot description, it will be' assumed t-hat the port 14 is the outlet and the p ort'15 the inlet. T he ports 14, 15 are controlled by valves7 of which only the operating stems 1G can be seen in the drawings because of the nat-ure of the views. The base of the hydrant has a flange 17 whichl may be secured by bolts 18 to the water main b, indicated in broken lines in F ig. 2. The chamber l communicates with the main Z) through a port 25 in its lower end. The chamber 5 has its upper end closed by a chambered cap 19 and between the chamber 2O of the cap and the chamber 5 is a diaphragm 21 of rubber or other suit-able flexible material, the marginal portion of the diaphragm constituting` a gasket 22 to` insure against leakage at the joint between the cap and the member o. Bolts 26 clamp the. cap upon the gasket 22. The chamber 2O is an air space maintained by the diaphragm so that when the water pressure in the chamber 5 changes rapidly, as upon sudden opening and closing of the valves, hammering of the water will not occur.

As shown in Fig. 1, the outlet 14 is connected with a tire hose line 23 and the intake 15 is connected by a hose 24 to the outlet c ot the pump.

The invention operates as follows: Asl

soon as the fire engine reaches the fire plug a fireman drops one end of the hose, frage mentarily indicated at 23, and a fireman connects said hose with the outlet port 14, as in Fig. 1, and turns on thel water to said hose, and the engine is run toward the lire and proteeds to lay the hose. 1f the re requires that the water pressure be increased over that in the main, the engine will be returned to the re plug and the hose 12, 2liwill be connected in the manner above described and the pump will be operated. As soon as the operation of the pump causes the pressure in the chamber 5to exceed that in t-he chamber 4, the valve 7 will automatically close and the water will then'flow t'rom the chamber 4- to the pump and from the pump to the chamber 5 and thence through the hose line 23 to the lire. It will be seen that during the operations described above, the water is flowing' continuously through the hose line 9.3 and it will also be noted that there is no wastage of water during the transition from city pressure to engine pressure. Then the pump is shut down the pressure beneath the valve 7'A increases and said valve automatically opens.

I claim:

A hollow standardv Jforming lower and up per chambers and provided with a port communica-ting one chamber with the other', a freeeopera'ting check valvercontrolling said port and closing downwardly toward the lower chamber, the upper chamber provided with a valved inlet adapted for connection with the outlet ot' a pump, the upper chamber provided with a valved outlet adapted for connection with a fire hose, the lower chamber provided with a valved outlet adapted for connection with the inlet of the pump and the lower chamber provided with an inlet adapted for connection with a water main.

Signed at Los Angeles, California, this 13th day of June, 1925.

BERT M. BLAKE. 

